Pompeii
is a partially buried
Roman town-city near modern
Naples in the Italian region of
Campania, in the territory of the
comune of
Pompei. Along with
Herculaneum, its sister city, Pompeii was
destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the
volcanoMount Vesuvius spanning two days in 79 AD
(See depiction at left) . The eruption buried Pompeii under 4 to 6 meters of
ash and
pumice, and it was lost for over 1,500 years
before its accidental rediscovery in 1599. Since then, its excavation has
provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city at the
height of the
Roman Empire.